Barnes & Noble, Layton, Utah
I finished up the post this morning and Bran and I drove out to Barnes & Noble to pick up a book they were holding for me. Standing in line to check out I saw the only clerk was a lady I’ve never been able to warm up to. She’s been there for years and I think she must be the front end manager. Small and thin with a close cropped hair style, she has a very severe look about her. Her facial expression is severe, her mannerisms are as well. She’s all business. And is ALWAYS in a hurry like she’s herding people onto a Southwest Airlines plane.
Well this morning the store wasn’t busy and I happened to be the last person waiting in line. I asked for the book they were holding and finished the transaction, then out of the blue she asked me if I had any plans for the holiday weekend (Pioneer Days in Utah). I actually stuttered. Except to ask if I have a Barnes & Noble membership card, I don’t believe she’s ever spoken to me except about official business. And Bran is amazed. He’s always called her cranky!
Once I got over the shock and was able to converse with her in a natural manner, we talked about her going camping for the weekend. I shared we had a wedding to go to on Saturday. “Well at least you won’t have to do your nails,” she said. “They’re beautiful.” I’d just done them Saturday a metallic pink. She laughed when I told her they were going to be lime green to match a top I had.
Just then someone else got in line and I wished her a good day. As I walked away I heard her switch to her business posture again and I kind of shook my head. Some people are REALLY different. But at least next time I won’t be so afraid to interact with her. I would never have suspected she could be so chit-chatty. It just made me smile in light of what I’d posted this morning.
Impromptu Promptlings 
Some people hide within themselves and it just takes one moment one person to suddenly see them as they really are before they return with that mask on.
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🙂
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For all you know she might have wished she could have been more friendly other times, and now, on a less crowded, slight slower moment in the work day, she saw in you someone who she felt a kinship, like she just woke up and realized, I could say something nice, because you’re always easy going and open. Today was your day! And hers! 🙂
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Such a sweet thought. I’d like to think so. {{{Fim}}}
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There is goodness in every person and one act of love covers over everything.
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Now if we could just get a LOT of people doing acts of love, wouldn’t it be a better world? I hope to see that someday. In the meantime, we do what we can, don’t we… Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it.
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🙂
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Metallic pink, huh? You WILD thing! 😉
Sometimes people do surprise us. You thought her someone you couldn’t warm up to. Maybe she thought the same about you? Now I KNOW you’re not like that! But to her, not knowing you like I do, maybe she felt the same way about you? I know if I have to deal with someone I think is unpleasant, rude, or someone I just don’t know, I get all tight and throw up a wall.
We just never know how others see us.
Luv Ya!
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Not on board with the metallic pink, huh? The ring finger on my RIGHT hand has black and white flowers all over it! 😀 I don’t think it’s that she SEES anyone any particular way. I think she is probably too busy to see. How you doin’, girlfriend? {{{Colls}}}
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Oh no…I’m OK with metallic pink!
Working. I’m off tomorrow to see the Dr. I’ve had a cough for a few weeks. So I took the whole day off. I’ll work on Santa Baby Chapter 15 too. Hubby will NOT be home! I love the man but having time to my self is good too!
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Please drop me a note and let me know what the doc says. Several weeks is a long time. Get feeling better. ❤
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Dr said it’s bronchitis. I had it back in Jan too. He put on Z pac antibiotics. So now I’m just going to enjoy the rest of my day off and work on Santa Baby. 🙂
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Ho, ho, ho!!! Get feeling better! Hugs!
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It’s always nice when people surprise you for the better. Glad you got to see her less-cranky self!
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Me, too! She always just looked so fierce. I’ve wondered before what it would be like to work for her! 🙂
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I love it when something like this happens. Maybe her home life is tough, or maybe you look a little like the girl who used to bully her at school – who knows? Anyway, it’s good that you finally connected with her. That’s someone you can tick off the mental “people to be avoided” list.
It’s hard sometimes to know what is really going on in people’s heads…
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You’re right. Learning to look at a situation from both sides of the coin is something I need to work on. I really just decided today that must be the “business” side of her.
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When I had a shop friendliness was part of the business -not for financial gain, but just to make life more pleasant. The resulting repeat sales were just a bonus.
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What kind of shop did you have?
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The coolest shop in town. I sold mad neon clothes and accessories, which were really popular with kids at the time, bright hair dye in all of the colours under the sun, horrible body jewellery, – that happened by accident and became a monster I couldn’t destroy – a bit of fancy dress. It was aimed mainly at adolscents and young adults, and but I got away with having a huge display of scarves for an entirely different kind of market, and a hippy area with incense and oils and the like, although it was only a small shop. It was wonderful for a while – it was a safe place for lonely and vulnerable young people. They used to sit in the corner and tell me their troubles. I felt guilty when I gave it up, but it was time to move on.
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Sounds wonderful! My kind of place. There’s a little store up in Park City where the Olympics were held when they were here. It’s called The Expanding Heart and is very much along those lines. I LOVE to go in there when we’re in Park City. Why did you feel it was time to move on?
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I was running the business with my ex, (yup – Mike!) and I had found out about truly horrific and unforgivable that he’d done. In spite of this I still somehow managed to stay for several years. But in the end I couldn’t stand his work practice and lack of ethics. Here’s an example: someone came into the shop and asked him not to sell our hair dye to her under-aged daughter, because she was destructive, and she would be likely to throw it all over the house. He agreed not to sell it and then did. She destroyed several items of furniture. The father took legal advice and found that Mike had not acted illegally as their are no controls on the product. It doesn’t even contain peroxide – not that there are limitations on the sale of that. Some months later, the same thing happened with another girl. He actually said to her “Your mum came in and asked me not to sell this to you, but I’ll take your money.” She was someone who I always refused to sell the dye to. I had my own rules about hair dye. I happily sold it to under sixteens if their parents were present.
The business went from being very healthy to collapsing within fifteen months of me giving it up. By that time Mike was hugely in debt although we had always kept it in the black when I was there. He knew nothing about buying and made disastrous mistakes. He lost customers, partly because everything was falling apart, and partly because many people wouldn’t go in there after any longer. My customers didn’t trust him.
I had carried him for twenty years and he had no idea. He’d spent all that time pretending it was his shop, and feeling important, treating me like an employee, holding the purse strings and stealing from the kitty. Poor, silly man.
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There’s nothing worse than pouring your heart and soul into a business, having it running well, then someone else taking it over and basically killing it. That happened at the copy center I managed. I put SO much energy into that. We had a great clientele. AND and wonderful reputation. Did great work. But then a real nut job bought it from the original owner and within seven months people wouldn’t even come in. He’d raised all the prices and all he did was argue with people. His wife took over the management. I stayed for seven months after he bought it as just an employee but felt like I was working in a fish bowl. He was so suspicious of every phone call, making sure the till was right on, didn’t want to see me standing doing nothing (when there was actually nothing to do toward the end). Then Lord Drollery’s boss sent our family on an Alaskan cruise for his 25th anniversary with the company, and while we were on the ship I totally lost it. Was so sick I came home in a wheelchair. The thought of going back to work made me horribly ill. I never never did go back. The business was gone three months later. The guy was certifiably crazy.
Btw, did you get my email this morning about Old Trees in the Woods?
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I’ve just found it, and joined. Thank you! I haven’t had time to look over it yet. I’m having a few problems with Laura, and it’s never-ending. She’s at a complete loss because her so called “friends” have all deserted her. She’s been too far gone even for them.
She’s just left, and I have to go shopping. I had to wait until she went, otherwise she would have gone with me, and it would’ve caused trouble, because I’m living on a shoestring, and she’d be trying to get me to buy all sorts of luxury items that she wouldn’t even want. She’s like a spoilt child in shops. Her dad encouraged that in her.
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Just left you a welcome thread. It’s just kind of a come-as-you-are site. 😀
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Thanks. I just went onto the page. It’s lovely. Who chose the theme and the colour? I’ve been thinking of sprucing up my blog, but I’m not sure whether it’s appropriate for my blog.
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That was just me. I was trying to figure out of I could get the thing to work where you invite people to be editors so we could all edit our stuff. I’d tried on a different them and couldn’t make it work. That forest picture would be on MINE except I’m so fond of the autumn one I have. I’m hesitant to change it.
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They’re both lovely, but I’m used to yours. My favourite time of the year in the forest is the late spring.
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Sometimes we just don’t know how people will react! Glad she was so nice.
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You’re absolutely right, Darlene. She just intimidated the heck out of me all these years!
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